I’m excited about long-form written content. Some information, debates, and stories simply demand more space for thought, discussion, and reaction. This is the context I had arriving at Medium in April 2014. Over two years later (June 2016), I’m back to take a close look at Medium from a gamification lens.

Before we start: This Gamification Analysis of Medium (Octalysis Level I) will focus on the composition side, meaning the writing of stories and responses and letters. In a future post, I will 1) discuss the reading and consumption side of Medium, and 2) detail my Octalysis Level II journey through Discovery,Onboarding, Scaffolding, and Endgame.

As always: I’ll be referencing the 8 Core Drives of Octalysis throughout:

I first used Slack with friends in a mastermind. Later, I created my own group to give and receive one-on-one feedback with other writers.

In the mastermind case, I downloaded Slack thanks to Core Drive 5: Social Influence & Relatedness (my friend sending the invite) with the aim of improving our group’s ability to stay connected and help one another (also CD5).

In this post, I’ll be examining the primary Core Drives Slack plays on with a focus on Core Drive 5: Social Influence & Relatedness. I’ll begin with a discussion of the Black Hat techniques and finish with White Hat techniques.

You Want To, But You Won’t

Anti Core Drives are the motivational pulls away from a Desired Action. Oftentimes, an Anti Core Drive opposes a Core Drive enough to entice a user to make an Undesired Action.

For several years, my brother Mark has contemplated leaving work as a risk manager and crude analyst for an energy commodities trading firm to follow his passion of creating and producing music. When asked why he won’t, he cites losing progress toward a prestigious and lucrative role as an energy commodities trader, among other things. His Desired Action (to live a life making music) is fueled by Core Drive 3: Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback, but that Core Drive is first dampened and then repeatedly defeated by its Anti Core Drive. In this case, the Anti Core Drive is Core Drive 2: Development & Accomplishment.

If the player is my brother Mark and his game is life, he has consistently performed the Undesired Action, staying the course toward trading and being unhappy (so far, at least!).

To further explore how Anti Core Drives are all around us on the flip side of the Core Drives, let’s look at a few simple examples of each of the Core Drives working as Anti Core Drives and conclude with an example that incorporates multiple Anti Core Drives dynamically working at the same time.

From the start, he planned to make the internship experience great. He’d been an intern and had ideas about how to improve various stages of the 10-week process. While there were some protocols to follow, he nevertheless intended to add his own creative approach on top. He was eager for his first management experience and wanted his intern team to impress people and deliver results.